An exploration of attitudes towards education : a case study of the University of Malta

Abstract

The dissertation examines the attitudes of students towards pursuing a post-graduate degree. Attitudes are made up of different elements that ultimately shape the intention to act in a certain way or to avoid certain behaviour. Hence, this study seeks to investigate whether there is a relationship between self expressive attitudes, utilitarian attitudes and satisfaction, and the intention to pursue a post graduate degree. A quantitative approach including factor analysis was employed for the purposes of the study; an online survey was distributed among students of a tertiary education setting in Malta. Even though factor analysis resulted from the study, it was found that demographic variables did not impact the intention to attain such an educational qualification. A qualitative approach was also taken to direct the quantitative investigation and also to gather insight behind the students‟ behaviours. Results indicate that there seems to be a positive correlation between value expressive attitudes and utilitarian attitudes and the intention to pursue a post graduate degree. Given the focus of this study within a Maltese educational setting allows for generalisations to other local educational settings. Other foreign educational settings require similar considerations not investigated in this study. Furthermore deeper study needs to be conducted for auxiliary findings.